


Burning The Bridges We Cross

by penTOGram



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe, BillDip, Demon!Bill Cipher, F/F, F/M, God!Bill Cipher, M/M, Mabel might have had some issues after weirdmageddon instead of Dipper, Mystery, Protective Dipper Pines, That totally isnt contradictory, Threats of Violence, plot heavy, shit is gonna hit the fan, violence in the later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-28
Updated: 2016-10-28
Packaged: 2018-08-27 11:44:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8400397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penTOGram/pseuds/penTOGram
Summary: When Dipper and Mabel return to Gravity Falls, they get what they wanted. A new mystery from the small, hick town. But all isn't as it seems as they get tangled up into a world of magical beings more powerful than most other beings they've fought. Along the way, they make several new friends, and even more enemies.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MidnightKaito](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightKaito/gifts).



Dipper smiled fondly at the now crinkled letter before packing at the top of his suitcase. The teen slid the brown hat Wendy had given him before onto his head. He couldn't wait to go back to Gravity falls, since it really was the only place he could fit in.

He grabbed the handle and pulled the bag off his bed, stumbling as the heavy case fell to the floor with a clunk. He grimaced, hoping it didn't damage any of the contents, and started to lug the bag downstairs where his sister was already waiting impatiently for him.

"You took forever, bro-bro!" Mabel exclaimed, waving her arms for effect, the sleeves of her bright pink shooting star sweater riding up them.

Dipper shook his head with a smile. "I'm just as excited to go back to Gravity Falls as you are Mabel, it is where our friends are." He paused for a second, a small frown appeared on his face and he shuddered, "and Gideon."

 Mabel rolled her eyes, "He wasn't that bad."

"Wasn't that bad? Wasn't that bad?!" Dipper whisper yelled, "he tried to kill me on several different occasions and was the reason you were in Mabel-land!"

"Come on Dipper, he is trying to change." His twin replied, "at least he is a 'regular Ol regular kid' now." Mabel used air quotation marks to quote what the white haired brat had used before they left the town. "At least give him a second chance, he did confront Bill."

Rubbing the bridge of his nose, Dipper answered her. "Fine! He gets one more chance, but if he hurts you, that's it!"

Mabel gave her brother a tight hug, smiling at him. "I knew you'd see it my way, Bro-Bro!"

Seeing his sister smiling, he couldn't help but crack a grin at his her. “Yeah, yeah.”

The female let her brother out of the bear hug, and started to bounce around, excited to see her friends and family again. “I can’t believe Stan got the shack back from Soos.”

“Well they did need a place to stay, and I think Soos loves Grunkle Stan as Mister Mystery too much, to leave the shack.” Dipper leant against the back of their burgundy couch. “Plus, I think Stan wanted to own the shack again, and Ford probably wanted access to the basement.”

“Grunkle Stan probably just wants to con the tourists into giving their hard earned cash, ‘because there is fun in no refunds’!” Mabel did her best Stan impression, which was difficult to not crack a smile to because she couldn’t reach the octave where their relative’s voice sat. “And Grunkle Ford want to be able to do nerdy robot stuff in his stuffy lab.”

“They did come back so that they could have us again for summer, that is one of the reasons Mabel.” Dipper began to fiddle with the tags on his bag, as his anxiousness towards the summer began to grow.

“Really? I would have never thought of it!” Mabel declared, smacking her hand on her forehead for effect perhaps a bit too hard as she started to rub the spot gingerly only a few seconds afterwards.

They both laughed at her own pain, because even if it did hurt, it was funny.

Before they could continue their conversation, their parents came and put their bags in the car, calling the two thirteen-year-old twins to the vehicle.

Mabel ran out of the house whooping, with her brother close behind her, laughing at her antics, previous conversation completely forgotten.

 

 

~~~O~~~O~~~O~~~

 

 

The bus ride to their favourite Oregon town was filled with laughter, many games of eye-spy and 'things found under the bus seats', which Mabel won with her _unique creativity_. It had seemed like only minutes had passed since they had left their Piedmont home, when they had finally entered the forest stretch of their ride to Gravity Falls.

Dipper was staring out of the window, watching the green pines zip past the window in a blur, whilst his sister was blabbing about how she was definitely going to have a summer romance that would work. He smiled softly at the fond memories from the previous year, before sighing. Secretly, the male wanted an adventure just like how their first time in gravity falls had started, but he knew that there would be no more stopping the apocalypse seeing as the only threat to the world and reality was gone.

Frowning, Mabel waved a hand in front of her brother’s face, snapping him out of his small reverie. “So, Bro-Bro,” she grinned at a realisation, “Hey! That rhymed! I’m a poet and I didn’t even know it!”

Whilst the female twin was chuckling at her joke, Dipper groaned, “That was bad and you know it, Mabel.”

“You’re just jealous of my poetry skills, Dip.” Mabel chimed, before looking out of the window. “Why don’t we play eye-spy?”

“We’ve already played seventy six games of that.”

“And?” Mabel gestured for him to continue.

“And, it’s gotten really boring.”

“Come on, Dipper!” Mabel whined, “I’ll even let you start.”

“Fine. I spy with my little eye, something beginning with S.” Dipper said, whilst glancing at his sister.

Mabel then proceeded to guess everything in sight, even items not beginning with the chosen letter. “Snail. Speedy Beaver. Socks. Sweater. Stinky guy two rows in front. Ummmm…. Smile dip. Slime!” she waved her arms around with the final syllable, getting a small laugh from her brother, with a small ‘No’ in reply. “Snake. Sludge. Shoes. Sneakers?”

“Nope. Completely wrong.” Dipper intoned.

“Come on, give me a clue!” Mabel whined, giving her brother her notorious ‘puppy eyes’.

“I think this is the first time I’m beating you at this game. Right a clue...” Dipper shifted in his seat as he tried to think of a clue. “It’s currently inside this bus.”

Placing her fingers around her eyes to create a pair of ‘spectacles’, she continued to look around the bus, eventually slumping when she couldn’t see anything else beginning with an ‘s’ on the large vehicle. She sighed in defeat, “What was it Bro-Bro?”

“Shooting Star.”

At those two words, Mabel’s breath hitched.

Dipper’s eyes widened in realisation at his mistake, “Mabel, listen to me, I was talking about the symbol on your sweater.”

They sat the last hour of the bus ride in an awkward silence, neither twin wanting to talk to the other or knowing how to recover from that sad mistake made by Dipper.

When it seemed like the tension between the two would cause an explosion, the bus finally slowed to halt at the Gravity Falls bus stop, and the twins broke out into grins at the sight of their family and friends, forgetting their previous tension.

Ford and Stan had returned from their sailing adventure, and were standing side by side. Ford was back to wearing his red turtleneck and cream trench coat, and his brother was wearing his old mister mystery suit. Candy, Grenda and surprisingly Pacifica were waiting patiently for the 'mystery twins', each of them wearing the sweaters Mabel had given them before leaving the first time. And finally, Soos was chatting with Wendy, who happened to be wearing the blue and white Pine Tree hat.

The seven people stopped what they were doing when they saw the 'Speedy Beaver' bus slow to a halt, the door making a 'Pssssh' sound as it opened to reveal the younger twins, ready for a brand new mystery to be revealed to them.

"Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Ford!" Both Dipper and Mabel cried out as they ran to their family members, enveloping them in a big hug.

Stan grinned, giving both the teens a welcome back noogie. “Welcome back you goodfornothings.”

Unlike his brother, Ford used a much more polite way of greeting the two. “It’s great to finally see you again, you two.”

After breaking up the hug, Wendy plucked her old hat off of Dipper’s head and shoved the signature blue and white pine tree hat on his head, pushing the bill down to cover his brown eyes.

Soon after, they were all driving back to the mystery shack in separate vehicles. Stan, Ford, Dipper and Mabel sitting in their respective seats in the red car called the ‘El Diablo’. Wendy was catching a ride in Soos’ red pick-up, a similar shade to that of Stan’s car. Finally, Pacifica, Candy and Grenda had the luxury of being seated in one of the few stretch limousines in the small, paranormal town. Each and every one of them, reminiscing about their previous adventures and the school year just gone. Unsurprisingly, no one said a thing about the end of the previous summer, or the end of the world, that had been otherwise dubbed as 'Weirdmageddon'. Thought it could have just been because of the ‘Never Mind All That Act’ which had been put into place by Mayor Tyler Cutebiker after the catastrophic events.

When they arrived at the shack, the twins deposited their belongings in their shared attic room, Mabel however picked up her emergency sleepover backpack. Dipper raised an eyebrow at her, but didn’t question anything, since he knew she had been waiting a whole year to see her friends again. Dipper made sure that his belongings weren’t going to be eaten by any stray goats, since he knew from experience that the aftermath wasn’t pretty.

The male twin left the mould invested room, and made his way downstairs where his family and friends were waiting. Stan had already pulled out the board game ‘Monopolise’, and had already begun to set it up, despite the groans from the rest of the group. The old man chuckled and finished setting up the bank area and the correct amount of cash for each player.

Mabel ran down the stairs, with her backpack being dragged behind her, hitting every second step with a wince-worthy ‘clunk’. Everyone watched as she looped her arm through one of the straps, and began to drag her three friends out of the wooden building.

Ford stopped her before she could completely leave, placing a six fingered hand on her shoulder. “Mabel? Where are you going? You only just arrived back here.”

The female turned around to face her relative, putting on her most tear inducing puppy eyes. “I’ve been planning on have a sleepover at Pacifica’s for months though, and I promise to have a super-duper best Grunkles in the whole world day when I get back!”

Ford sighed, and looked towards his brother who shrugged, now drinking a freshly opened can of Pitt Cola. Wiping a hand down his face, he turned back to his great niece. “Fine. One night, then you come back. I don’t want to be the last one to hear about your school year.”

The brunet practically pounced on the older man, giving him a tight hug, cutting off his oxygen flow for a few brief seconds. And before they knew it, Mabel had said her goodbyes and slammed the front door behind her, as she ran to Pacifica's Limousine, Candy and Grenda packing into the fancy black stretch behind her.

Shrugging, the remaining five moved to where the board game was resting on the kitchen table and sat down. Stan had to re-organise the bank and money since they lost three members. They continued to play the game, making idle chatter about the year just gone, with Dipper glancing through the window every once in a while.

“So, Dipper? How has the year been for you and Mabel after the… incident with Bill?” Ford asked attentively.

The thirteen-year-old sighed deeply, he should have known that that particular question was going to be asked eventually, and he just hadn’t expected it to be so soon. “I actually haven’t been that bad, sure I couldn’t look at equilateral triangles for about two weeks, but after that I was fine.” He exhaled, rubbing his face as the four others watched him with worried expressions. “It was really Mabel that had the issues. Sometimes she would mistake me for that jerk Dippy Fresh, or even freeze up at the mention of ‘shooting star’s, it took me a long time to get her to wear that sweater again, it was her favourite after all.” He buried his face in his hands.

“Aw Dood, look on the bright side,” Soos said with a little bit of enthusiasm in his tone, “At least she is still smiling.”

Weakly smiling at the child-like man, the brunet replied, “You’re right. I guess I lost myself in the past year.”

Wendy pushed the bill of his cap down, smiling. “I take it your year wasn’t all just tears and broken sibling trust.”

Readjusting his cap, Dipper beamed at the older teen, starting to go into some of his and Mabel’s shenanigans throughout the year. “We were picked to do a science cross art project, right and the only thing Mabel wanted to do was make this giant glitter canon, which would poof an insurmountable amount of glitter into the air and surrounding areas.”

At the mention of the small shiny flakes, both Stan and Ford frowned, knowing how hard it was to get out of their clothes before going on their sailing trip. “Please don’t tell me you went through with it.” Stan groaned.

Ford however was genuinely intrigued despite his hatred of the particles of sparkles. “How would that work? I doubt you would have just been able to get the correct supplies for anything of the sort easily in Piedmont.”

Dipper laughed, “It was easier than it seemed, After ordering one of those guns they typically use at baseball or sports matches to project items into the crowd, we had to think of a way to make it so the glitter wouldn’t get-” He noticed the far away looks on the three people that weren’t Stanford. “To get to the point, we managed to do it and Mabel brought it here with us.”

Seeing Stan’s face pale at the thought of a seemingly never ending supply of glitter caused the others to break down into laughter.

The older man stood up abruptly, pushing his chair away from the table in the one movement. “I will not stand for this! I need to get the gun before she even has a chance to use it!”

“Mister Pines, I am pretty sure she already fired it. Mabel was covered in glitter when she came down.” Soos told the fez wearing man, matter-of-factly, before checking the time on his watch. “Uh, Mister Pines, I also have to go, it’s nearly my bed time.”

Sitting back down, Stan buried his face in his hands, grumbling about the cons of glitter, waving Soos off. Not one person questioned the twenty two year old, as they knew that he’d forever be a big child on the inside.

“Bye Doods,” Soos said to the Pines in general, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Wendy said a much similar goodbye, since Soos was dropping her off back at her family’s house. “See you later, Dipper, Mr Pines’”

Just like that, it was down to three people sitting at the old wooden kitchen table, playing Monopolise.

“I say we split their funds and properties between the three of us, then we discuss either a way to confiscate that glitter gun or to incorporate a never ending rain of glitter to the shack’s displays.” Stan spoke gruffly, and to the point, making where he stood on the two separate issues clear.

When dividing the properties up from the two players that had left, it became apparent that Soos had held most of the property in the board game, even though he didn’t necessarily understand the rules of it.

“How did he manage to even get this much money or property when he doesn’t even know the rules?!” Stan cursed, when counting the notes that had previously been the man-child’s.

“It seems that he seems to be better at a game you rigged, Stanley.” Ford joked light heartedly.

“Why I never!’ Stan place a hand over his heart in mock hurt. “You’d accuse your own brother of petty thievery and deception?”

Without so much as a pause the twin replied. “Yes.”

Dipper snorted at the two men’s interactions, rolling the dice, and moving his piece forward.

Funnily enough the original pieces had obviously been lost long before the twins came to the small town, and had been replaced with different coloured geometrical pieces. Typically, everyone had a shape that they’d go for every game. Ford had chosen a blue dodecahedron, Stan a golden rectangular prism that looked suspiciously like a small bar of gold. Mabel, a purple square, and Dipper was the only one who’d even so much as touch the yellow triangle he called his own piece. Everyone else had been too scarred by the events of the previous year.

The game continued with small petty arguments and misplaced cash, until it finally stopped when Stan noticed he was losing, and flipped the table, surprising both Dipper and Ford. Some of the apartment pieces and along with one of the dice rolled under the fridge. Stan’s chest was heaving, being angry at losing. “That nerd game of yours is better than that crap!”

Both Dipper and Ford chuckled at his antics.

Ford checked the time, using his homemade watch. “It’s probably about time you got to bed, kiddo.” His comment directed at dipper. “We don’t want to mess up your sleep schedule this early in the holidays.”

“But what about the mess?” The teen gestured to the game that was now lying all over the kitchen.

“We’ll clean it up,” Ford assured, glancing at his brother, “I’ll make sure Stanley helps clean up the mess he made.”

Stan harrumphed, but agreed anyway, seeing how tired Dipper looked, “Yeah, go to sleep kid, I’ll clean up.”

Dipper nodded his goodnights to his grunkles, and walked out of the room, turning to climb the creaky wooden stairs. Once up the top of the stairs, he walked the rest of the distance to the door to the small attic room. Making sure no-one was watching, he closed and locked the door behind him, as what he was doing he didn’t want either of his grunkles to see. He spun around to see Mabel’s entire side covered in a thick layer of the dreaded sparkles, fortunately though, his sister had been kind enough to do her best to not spread it over to his side. Which was not very well, but it would do.

He trudged slowly over to his bed, trying to avoid the squeaky floorboard, but failing terrible. Opening his bag, he dug through the belongings to find what he managed to sneak off with before they had burned everything. A small golden statue of Bill, and a few scarce documents about the demon. It wasn’t much, but he knew that it would have to do for the moment, seeing how he knew how his family would act.

His index finger traced over the outline of the triangle, over the limbs and top hat, and even circling the eye resting in the center of the shape.

“Why do I want to find out more about you? You terrorise my family and you are left, lying dead in the past.” Dipper whispered those words to the statue, almost hoping the answer would appear in front of him like a giant neon sign.

Though no answer or reply was given, and the demon didn’t appear out of thin air to mock or trick him, he couldn’t help but feel ever so slightly disappointed. The brunet removed his hat and ran a hand through his hair to try to ease off the displeasure he felt.

Placing his signature pine tree hat on the bedside table, Dipper then turned back to his bag and shuffled his clothes and items around to hide the small statuette of Bill Cipher.

After zipping the bag closed, he placed it at the foot of his bed. He removed his blue puffer vest and grey shorts, but kept his boxers on.

Dipper crawled into the single bed, pulling the sheets over his head, thinking about his previous summer in Gravity Falls.

~~~O~~~O~~~O~~~

Down in the kitchen of the Mystery Shack, the older set of twins were cleaning up the kitchen, picking up the Monopolise pieces that had been scattered around the kitchen due to Stan’s outburst.

“It’s great to have the kids back.” Ford said contently, reaching as far under the fridge as he could to retrieve one of the playing pieces that had been lost.

Stan grinned at his brother, sorting out the fake money in a typical ‘Stan’ fashion. “Don’t say that just yet, you might change your mind by the end of the summer.”

As both of them chuckled at the joke, Ford managed to grasp the rouge piece and pulled it out. It was the triangle that Dipper always used. With a discontented grunt, he threw the piece back in the box.

“I believe that is all of the missing pieces, Stanley.” Ford told his brother as he stretched his back and arms after being bent over for so long.

“It’s about time we finished packing it up, it’s been almost an hour since Dipper went to bed.” The fez wearing man replied, placing the fake money back into the box.

Ford regarded his brother with an incredulous expression. “All you did was count the fake monetary paper that came with the game.”

“Exactly.”

Snorting, Ford left the room temporarily to place the box back on the games shelf, and returned to the kitchen in a couple minutes.

Seemingly at the same time, the two brothers yawned. Sensing the other’s weariness, they one nodded at the other in goodnight, before leaving the kitchen. Ford moved over to the light switch, and flicked it before moving to the room that had previously held the electron carpet, to sleep.

Long after the Stan twins left the kitchen, and late into the night, the shack's phone began to ring. Once. Twice. Three times. But nobody was awake to answer it. Even Ford had been dragged into the blissful state that was sleep.

Little did anyone know, was that fate seemed to have it out for the Pines family.

**Author's Note:**

> This AU wouldn't have been possible without the permission of the original owner, so I'd like to thank MidnightKaito for both being a part of this wonderful fandom, and for granting permission to write my own interpretation based off their Tumblr post.


End file.
